European Patent Specification No. 0 036 266 B1 describes a bank note dispensing machine with a delivery device for the receipt for the bank notes dispensed. Bank notes are transported from a first source to a delivery conveyor by a first transport means. The printed receipt, documenting the delivery of the dispensed bank notes, is transported from the printer through a second transport path and delivered then to the back of the already stacked bundle of bank notes on the very same conveyor. If both, bank notes and receipt are collected on the conveyor, both are transported through an exit slot of the machine. There the consumer can grasp the bank notes together with the printed receipt.
In this known bank note dispensing machine the bank notes and the receipt exit the machine through one and the same slot simultaneously. Nevertheless they are bundled inside the machine in such a way, that the collection of money and receipt has to be performed outside of a safe. A safe very often is required for keeping the money, and after the money has been collected in the correct and needed amount then this bundle of bank notes is exited through a slot from the safe. Such a delivery method of the money out of a safeguarded area is not possible with the delivery systems of the present invention, particularly the IBM 4731.
In the UK Patent Application No. GB 2 141 407 A, a cash dispensing machine is described in which one or more bank note stores and one receipt store are provided in a stack. The lower most, or in other words the transport path in the upstream position, is provided for the receipt store. During issuing the bank notes from the different stores to the exit gate, a receipt is printed and, after the last issued bank note, delivered into the very same transport path to exit the same gate. A simultaneous exiting of receipt and bank notes at the slot or the exit gate of the banking terminal is not possible with this machine.
The IBM 4731 Personal Banking Machine provides the possibility to issue bank notes, to issue statements and to issue statements together with bank notes. The bank notes are kept in cartridges within a safe and within the safe arranged in the bundle to be issued to the consumer. Only if the bundle contains the correct number of bank notes are they provided on a conveyor to be issued through a slot within the safe. A printer is provided to print the receipt, to print one or more statements, to collect them and to issue them together with the bundle of bank notes simultaneously through one issue gate. There the consumer grasps the bundle of bank notes together with the statement. The bundle of bank notes is transported to the gate by the so-called front drive forming a first transport means. The statement or several statements also collected in a bundle are provided by a printer and collected at a statement issuing position. They are exited to the gate by a second transport means. Both transport means coincide at the issue gate in a certain angle of less than 90.degree.. For more details reference is made to the IBM 4731 Personal Banking Machine General Information Manual Form Number GA 19-5346-1, especially chapter 2 as well as to IBM 4731 Personal Banking Machine Operators Guide Form Number GA 19-5357-1, chapter 2. Those manuals are incorporated here by references.
As already stated in the IBM 4731 Personal Banking Machine, statement or statements and bundle of bank notes are issued through a common gate or issuing slot and offered to the consumer. Statement and bundle of bank notes come together at the issue gate on transports from different independent units. So the statement is transported from the printer with a relatively low velocity of for example 70 mm/s. At the same time the bundle of bank notes is transported through the front drive, a pair of belts clamp the bundle in between them, and transport the bundle of bank notes with a relatively high velocity of about 300 mm/s to the issuing slot.
The bundle of bank notes with the statement or the statements, are brought together and because of the different velocities of the items, the following problems are caused:
The fast moving bundle of bank notes pulls the statement too far. As a result, a predictable end position of the statement is not possible. This predictable end position of the statement is an absolute must. If the consumer forgets to take the statement or to take the bundle of bank notes after the elapse of a certain amount of time the statement and the bundle of bank notes will be retracted and deposited in different bins. The non-taking is sensed by the machine. If the statement is pulled too far out of the issuing gate by the moving bundle of bank notes the machine senses that the statement has been taken by the consumer. In reality the statement might still be within the gate. This leads to difficulties and malfunction of the machine.
There are different factors contributing to this problem. Those are that the velocity of the bundle of bank notes is essentially higher than that of the statement. Furthermore, the bundle of bank note and statement are not issued parallel to each other through the slot of the exit gate but they come together under a certain angle. Also, the slot of the exit gate is relatively narrow which means that the statement is pulled out of the slot of the exit gate by the bundle of bank notes beyond that which is desired. And, there is a relatively high coefficient of friction between the bank note and the statement, and furthermore, the statement is not kept within the printer or its delivering transport, but joined with the moving bank notes at a different velocity.
To avoid the bank note pulling out of the statement through the slot of the exit gate all of these factors would have to be improved. This would imply a redesign, and change of the construction, both imposing considerable cost and time efforts.
One possible solution probably would be to delay the transport of the statement to the slot of the issuing gate so that it is issued through the slot after the bundle of bank notes already has been issued. But in reality, it is impossible to push the thin statement or the thinner bundle of statements through the slot later, since the slot is very narrow and the bundle of bank notes fans out and thus gets thicker outside of the issuing gate, thus the slot is clogged up. Such a method of operating would lead to a blocking and jamming of the issue gate.